Splitting Apart

Some months ago I was in Spain visiting my father. My father has always talked about the I Ching, but for some reason I had never myself thrown one. So after a great night of philosophy at the house of a friend of his, we went back home to my father. The theme of the whole day had been the possible change in consciousness and/or the world predicted to happen in 2012. We decided it was the right time to ask the I Ching. So we did. This would be my first I Ching.

We sat at his desk in his apartment. He told me how it all was with the coins and this. The lines and how it all works. So I sat rubbing the coins in my hands contemplating the question. (We had agreed on a good formulation beforehand.)

I began shaking the coins as I contemplated the question, getting ready to throw the coins. “Will … there be a … radical change in the year 2012?” I timed the throw so that as soon as I finished the question in my head I let go of the coins. So I thought: “Will there be a radical change in the year 2012?” And BANG! The instant that I let go of the coins the light went out in the apartment making quite a loud *pooft* sound! We were quite disorientated by the sudden total darkness. My father fumbled his way to the flashlight and gave it to me. As we stood there we noticed out the window (this is on the 6th floor) that it wasn't a local blackout in apartment we were in, the whole city was without lights! At least to one side of the city (the part that was visible from the window).

I put the batteries in the flashlight and pushed the button. The flash didn’t work, but the lights went on again the second I pressed down the ON switch. Retrospect this is also interesting, because the reason that the flashlight didn’t go on was that I hadn’t paid enough attention when screwing on lid to the batteries and it wasn’t on correctly. My father and I extrapolated from this that when the shit hits the fan there will be a time of darkness, confusion will arise. One will have the capacity to make some light locally, but it is crucial that one stays frosty and attentive in this confusing situation if one is to be able to get the light to shine locally. But the light comes on by itself – rather it will come back on, so it’s about riding it out.

When the light came back on we sat down and finished the 5 remaining tosses. The result was even more hair-raising than the blackout…

As it was a Spanish translation of the I Ching; the answer I got was the 23 “La Desintegracion” – which directly translated means The Disintegration. In the English version of the I Ching the 23 is “Splitting Apart”.

If you have the I Ching you know what this (might) mean. If you don’t you can get a picture just by thinking about the title… But if this is the case you need to go get yourself the I Ching asap!

This was my first I Ching. Later I bought my own I Ching and am now officially an investigator of the (ingenious) Chinese philosophy.

Tell me what you think this answer could mean – I have an idea, but this is of course my own interpretation and I would like to hear some other points of view.

Oneness,
Evo